Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn has suggested that her team missed a "realistic chance" of points at Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix.

Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson had forced himself into the top 10 before problems at his second pit stop saw him drop back to 14th, while mechanical issues led to Felipe Nasr ending the race in 12th.

However, Kaltenborn believes that Sauber showed enough speed to justify a points finish at Sakhir.

"We missed a very realistic chance of finishing in the points, particularly as our lap times were competitive," she told reporters.

"On Marcus's car we had a technical issue during his second pitstop, where he lost a lot of time. We are sorry for that. Felipe lost time due to a temporary loss of power.

"The engineers were able to fix this after some laps, but the time lost was too big, and so he was also not able to fight for points like his team mate. Both drivers fought impressively, but we didn't get any rewards."

Sauber ended the 2014 season without any points, but have picked up 19 in four races so far this term.